Save the Date: AI & A2J Summit—Learning and Innovating Together
Save the Date: AI & A2J Summit — Learning and Innovating Together
When: Thursday, September 17, 2026 | 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Where: The Meeting House, Columbia, MD (In-Person Only)
The conversation around artificial intelligence can often feel abstract or disconnected from the daily, ground-level realities of civil legal aid. But when applied correctly, AI holds real potential to ease heavy administrative burdens and give advocates back their time to focus on what matters most: serving clients.
Co-hosted by the Maryland Access to Justice Commission and Maryland Legal Aid, this summit is a practical, hands-on working session. It is designed to help civil legal aid organizations and justice stakeholders figure out how to responsibly and effectively use AI in their actual workflows.
What We Will Tackle:
- Establish a Baseline: Get clear, realistic answers on AI capabilities and limitations.
- Address Barriers: Have honest conversations about organizational fears, ethical concerns, and policy hurdles.
- Test Tools in Real Time: Experiment with AI tools in a safe, guided environment to see how they handle actual bottlenecks.
- Build Frameworks: Learn how to structure secure AI adoption and governance guidelines at your organization.
- Create a Community: Help launch an ongoing community of practice to share lessons, tools, and strategies across Maryland’s legal ecosystem.
Who Should Attend: To make the most of this working session, we encourage organizations to send a team of up to three people: one leadership-level decision-maker (to focus on policy) and two “AI-curious” staff members (to test tools and lead practical implementation).
Sponsorship Opportunities: We are actively seeking sponsors to ensure this summit remains at no cost for our civil legal aid community. Your sponsorship directly supports expert speakers, hands-on demonstrations, and the development of a collaborative AI ecosystem in Maryland. We offer three levels of support: Builder ($1,500), Catalyst ($3,000), and Visionary ($5,000). If your organization wants to be recognized as a leader supporting responsible innovation and equitable access to justice, please learn more here and reach out to Reena Shah at reena@msba.org to learn more about partnering with us.